This was published 9 months ago
Many hands make lights work: Finding Brisbane’s best Christmas displays
Gone are the days of driving aimlessly around Brisbane searching for the best Christmas light displays. Now, it’s as simple as going online.
“We have over 2000 confirmed 2023 displays listed across the country,” Christmas Light Search co-founder Lachlan Kennedy said.
Born from a “difficult” night of Christmas light searching in 2008, Christmas Light Search had since grown to become one of the biggest online directories in the country.
“In the first year we probably only had about 50 locations, which we added ourselves – we’d drive around to find the displays and take our own photos,” he recalled.
“As the directory became more well known we’d start to receive emails from homeowners requesting their houses [be] listed.”
Now, the sheer volume of submissions received meant work for Kennedy and his co-founder began in August to ready the site and compile the list.
“Every submission gets its own webpage plus is listed on the map. All submissions are reviewed, and whilst a tedious task, it ensures the integrity of the directory.”
This year, the number of listings in Brisbane surpassed 230.
But which house had the best display? That was a difficult question to answer.
Kennedy highlighted homes in Burpengary East, Sinnamon Park, Bald Hills, Wynnum West, and Coopers Plains as standouts.
“[At Sinnamon Park there’s] 100,000 LED Christmas lights, a 6000-LED 12-metre ‘river’ with Australian sea and land animals … [In Wynnum West] there is a massive Santa here, bigger than any other you’d have seen.”
As the directory grew over the years, the Victorian cousins put great effort into the development of the site – taking a considerable amount of time during the COVID-19 pandemic to rebuild it entirely.
A user rating system was one of the newer features added.
“We don’t publish commercial or business listings as we want to keep the site community-based.”
Although managing the site was time-consuming and, at times, an overwhelming task to juggle with a full-time job, it was a rewarding one.
“It’s just great to assist a passionate community of Christmas Light display owners, as well as the many people who come to the site, similar to how we did back in 2008 – looking for Christmas lights nearby or the best lights in a city that are worth a drive to go and see.”
Christmas Light Search’s top Brisbane displays
Bedarra Crescent, Burpengary East
McPherson Road, Sinnamon Park
Louisa Place, Karalee
Nemarra Street, Wynnum West
Keeling Street, Coopers Plains